Explain how glaciers move

What will be an ideal response?


Most of us are familiar with small blocks of ice—ice cubes that you put in drinks. That ice is brittle; when it is stressed (if you hit it with something hard) it will fracture. At higher pressures, however, deeper within a glacier, slowly applied stress causes the ice to deform more like a plastic. This stress increases as you move deeper into the ice and causes the ice to flow (see the Box "Thinking Quantitatively: Movement of Glaciers"). If the ice is frozen to the bed, then the flow at the base is zero and the maximum flow is somewhere above the influence of the bed. Bed. Where there is liquid water at the base, or where the bed is made up of unconsolidated material (particularly if that also has a high water content)—then the glacier can slide over the bed. In this case, the downslope movement has two components, one due to plastic deformation and one to basal sliding (Figure 6-7c in the main text).

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

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The profundal zone is the deepest zone in an ocean ecosystem

Indicate whether the statement is true or false

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

You are studying Physical Geography. Speculate on why physical geographers should be interested in the patterns of globalization

What will be an ideal response?

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

Pelagic sediment is sediment that settles slowly through the ocean water.

Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

Milankovitch cycles ________

A) are the cause of ice ages B) seem to be unrelated to ice ages C) correlate fairly well with some major ice advances D) are possible ice age causes related to changing positions of continents E) are based on the varying output of the sun

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences